Sinners

I finally had the opportunity to see Sinners last night with my nephew and to say that I was hyped for this movie would be an understatement.  Let me tell you now that the hype is real and I honestly cannot see anything beating this as my favorite movie of 2025.  World War I veterans Elijah "Smoke" and Elias "Stack" Moore (Michael B. Jordan) flee Chicago after stealing from the mob and return to their hometown in the Mississippi Delta to buy a sawmill from the local Klan leader and turn it into a juke joint for the Black community.  The twins recruit their young cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) to play guitar despite the fact that his father, who is a pastor, believes that his ability is supernatural.  They also employ Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) as a piano player and Pearline (Jayme Lawson) as a singer as well as Smoke's estranged wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), who has a strong belief in the occult, as a cook, a field hand named Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) as a bouncer, and Chinese shopkeepers Bo and Grace Chow (Yao and Li Jun Li, respectively) as suppliers.  At the grand opening, Stack's former girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) appears and he tries to make her leave because she passes for white and he fears for her safety, and his, but she refuses.  Remmick (Jack O'Connell), an Irish immigrant who is a vampire, is drawn to the juke joint along with other vampires and asks to be admitted but Annie has a bad feeling and they are refused.  However, several people eventually leave, including Mary, and are turned into vampires which results in an epic confrontation after Remmick suggests that becoming vampires will help those inside fight against the racism all of them have faced.  I loved the slow build-up to the events at the juke joint because you really get to know the characters and what they have experienced as marginalized people in America, particularly the oppression of Black people in the South during the Jim Crow era (I was particularly moved by Mary because she doesn't seem to belong anywhere).  I found the use of vampires to be incredibly thought-provoking, especially in regards to assimilation, and the juxtaposition between the threat from them and the threat from the KKK is compelling.  But, most of all, I loved the way that music is portrayed as a way to connect the stories from generations in the past to those in the future and, once again, I absolutely loved the juxtaposition between a blues performance inside the juke joint (this scene, shot in one take, is absolutely brilliant and must be seen on the big screen) and an Irish jig performed outside.  The music is absolutely incredible and, as previously mentioned, Caton's performance of "I Lied to You" and O'Connell's performance of "Rocky Road to Dublin" gave me goosebumps.  Jordan is fantastic in the dual role because each brother is very distinctive (I was struck by the different ways in which the brothers interact with the women in their lives) and the rest of the cast is outstanding but Caton, in his first role, is absolutely captivating.  The cinematography, costume design, production design, sound design (there is a scene involving the memory of a lynching that is haunting), and score (Ludwig Göransson has never been better) are all incredibly immersive and I felt like watching this movie was an experience.  I really loved it and, because it is so thematically rich, I suspect that I will be seeing it again soon.

Note:  There is a mid-credits scene and an end-credits scene and both are important to the narrative so be sure to stick around!